Star Wars: TIE Fighter

The Good
The sequel to 'X Wing', 'Tie Fighter' added lots of improvements whilst not reducing the essential good-ness of the original. The most important addition is a difficulty slider - 'Tie Fighter' can be completed by mortal people. The plot, in which you defend the galaxy from from evil Rebel terrorists, is a nice touch. The graphics have been overhauled, and despite being gourad-shaded polygons they're effective, and move swiftly on a 486 DX/33. 'iMuse' is back (you get to hear the Imperial march in AdLib FM), and it's generally a more satisfying game, with a wider range of ships and an incentive to play it in the harder difficulty levels in the form of advancement into a 'secret society'. As a single-player game it's much more satisfying than the disappointing 'X Wing Vs Tie Fighter', too.

The Bad
Truth be told, there isn't much wrong with this game. Some of the unfair, 'protect the vulnerable crates / transports' missions are back from 'X-Wing', but they're toned-down. Even the fact that you're flying an unarmoured light fighter isn't a great problem, as you're deceptively tough. The biggest problem is technical - it's quite possible this game won't work with your modern machine due to difficulties with VESA drivers.

The Bottom Line
Still great fun today, an addictive space combat game with ridiculously cool space hardware.

The Good
I loved the ability to adjust the difficulty level. I also liked having the option of various goal levels so that you could survive the tough missions and rack up major points on the easy one.

The Bad
Like the X-Wing game, I thought the maze race was so-so. I may not have played that part enough to get the "full enjoyment" out of it. I'm not sure yet how I would have improved it, but it seemed awfully boring.

The Bottom Line
Despite being 6 years old, this game is still highly competitive with current games. It's definitely a classic worth replaying over and over again.

The Good
There is a good deal to like about TIE Fighter. First of all, of course, is a chance to fly for the Empire in all of its technologically advanced starfighters. All the elements that made X-Wing so great are there and there are several improvements. The graphics are excellent, the sound appropriate, and the famed Williams soundtrack is, of course, there to accompany you for the ride. The missions are exciting and interesting, with multiple goals to accomplish. You can get through the game by accomplishing only the main goals of the missions, as assigned to you by your commanding officer, but there are also hidden goals, often assigned to you by a secret agent of the Emperor. The dogfighting action is great and the new variety of weapondry makes it even better, adding such goodies as space-bombs and rockets. The Tour of Duty is the best of this game. Though there are "simulator" missions, like X-Wing´s "Historical Missions", this time around most of them are simple training exercises and not too challenging, though there are some real nutcrackers there. The final nice feature and a great improvement over X-Wing is the ability to back-up your pilot´s illustrious career, just in case you get blasted to kingdom come in the next mission.

The Bad
Can´t think of anything in particular, except that joystick support for the Gravis Blackhawk is horrid (it kept jumping to the side when I was trying to get a good bead). It works great with a Sidewinder, however.

The Bottom Line
A great space-sim set in the inspiring stage of the Star Wars universe.